Medication & Pharmacology

We have come across that medicinal products have become unavailable. Our three latest examples are dextrose gel used for hypoglycemia management (I think this is a food supplement, but still) iron drops for supplementation preterm infants (so, used a lot!) multivitamin drops for preterm infants (finally back on the shelf...) @Bernhard Csillag also posted about phenobarb (see link below) Do you share this experience in your various contexts? I understand that newborns and especially preterm infants are small patient groups for companies to "build business around", and that we have less "power" than say cardiologists working with much la…

I just came across some papers about etomidate for sedation - causing no haemodynamic problems, but I hardly find any paper or recommendation for or against using etomidate in neonates. What I learned so far: - No haemodynamic suppression - Not analgetic - very often onset of myocloni - High tone of pharyngeal muscels - so relaxation needed - Adrenal suppression - in a relevant duration? That one could be a relevant argument against using it in neonates. - 0,3 mg/kg/Dose - Don't know anything about neuroapoptosis. Any experiences? Thank you! best wishes, Bernhard

A cordial greeting from Ecuador. I would like to know if anyone has experience with the simultaneous administration of budesonide and surfactant to decrease the incidence or severity of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Sincerely, Fernando Agama C. Neonatology Unit Enrique Garces Hospital Quito, Ecuador

Dear All, I wanted to know your unit’s antibiotic choice in 22-23 week babies. We use Benzyl Penicillin and Gentamicin. Dose of Gentamicin is 5 mg/kg/dose @ 36 hourly interval. However we’ve seen actuate kidney injuries with this dosage and we’re wondering whether to change to cefotaxime instead. Would be grateful for your input.

Dear colleague, We are a group of neonatologists interested in neonatal pharmacology. We have launched worldwide this survey to study neonatal analgesia & sedation management. We would really appreciate your expertise and input! We´d suggest you to reflect the current management of analgesia and sedation in your NICU. The name of the Hospital, that we offer to add at the end of the survey, is requested only to avoid duplicated responses and will be deleted before processing the data. No single person or institution will receive information regarding individual answers to the survey. The survey will take 10 minutes or less to complete. In case you have any questi…

Dear 99ers, I would love to hear your different guidelines/approaches/opinions on perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis in preterm and term infants. This is something i would definitely like to improve in our institution. So far, I found no real evidence or guidelines, especially for premature infants. I know various approaches from different departments in Austria, but it would be interesting to have a more international view on this topic. Every comment/reference/expertise on a certain part of this topic (e.g. AB-prophylaxis for cardiac patients, premies, gastroschisis, etc.) is helpful to gather information on this relevant topic. Do you change the regimen al…

Dear Colleagues I am writing to you about your dose range and experiences of using fentanyl infusions for sedation. What is your range and what side effects have you seen. Alok

Hi there I would be grateful if someone will help me in understanding how to calculate cumulative dose of Narcotics received by baby while staying in NICU. A baby in NICU can have narcotics/sedative infusions, intermittent injections for many days to week depending on surgical or medical condition. To reduce Narcotics use in NICU , I need to reduce the number of days the babies were on Narcotics and also to reduce the cumulative dose per kg. To retrieve data, from system suppose a baby receive 3000mcg total morphine in 60days, so to calculate per kg dose which weight should be taken. Definitely babies gain weight during these 2 months period. I Will be oblige…

Hello! I am new to Nicu.org. I have been a neonatal Nurse in Kalamazoo MI for about 11 years. Have just started looking at this site but have seen some interesting info here. I have a question to anyone who would be interested about Neonatal Withdrawl Scoring tools. We currently use NWI tool. However, when a pediatrician follows a baby on our unit, they will request we use the Finnegan tool. Does anyone have any information they would be willing to share or protocols? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Kim Holden

Dear colleague, A group of neonatologists united in the ESPR Special Interest Group for Neonatal Pain has launched a survey to study analgesic therapy for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The aim of this survey is to describe the analgesic therapy regimens for NEC used in neonatal units across Europe. For this purpose, we have developed an anonymous, web-based questionnaire. We kindly request the head of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or a delegated senior neonatologist to complete the survey. The name of the NICU is required only to avoid duplicated response per hospital and will be deleted before processing the data.…